La. 1 closure isolates Port Fourchon, Grand Isle

Wednesday

Jan 29, 2014 at 11:23 AMJan 30, 2014 at 8:58 AM

Half an inch of ice on the surface of the La. 1 bridge shuttered a major artery for nearly 18 hours, leaving the nation's largest oil and gas port and one of the state's top vacation spots completely cut off to road traffic for much of the day Wednesday.

Half an inch of ice on the surface of the La. 1 bridge shuttered a major artery for nearly 18 hours, leaving the nation's largest oil and gas port and one of the state's top vacation spots completely cut off to road traffic for much of the day Wednesday.Officials finally were able to de-ice the elevated highway and reopen it at Leeville just before 3:30 p.m. It had been closed since about 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, when State Police decided to shut it down.Port Fourchon, which handles more than 90 percent of deepwater oil and gas traffic in the Gulf of Mexico, remained open to ship traffic but saw operations slow to a crawl, according to the port's executive director, Chett Chiasson.“We are open but shipments may be delayed,” Chiasson said. “There's minimal movement taking place.”The port receives about 1,000 truck shipments daily, Chiasson said. State Police sent a news release to trucking companies prior to the closure, according to police spokesman Evan Harrell.A number of port shipments remained held up at other road closures throughout the state, Chiasson said.A piece of machinery not often seen in the area, a snowplow, was used to help break and move the accumulated ice, courtesy of the Terrebonne Parish Sheriff's Office.“There was about a half a mile of road that was really iced up, but these snowplows dug into that ice and pushed it up,” Sheriff Jerry Larpenter said.Two-and-a-half-ton trucks, known as deuce-and-a-halfs, are typically used to clean up debris after a hurricane or tropical storm.“After Hurricane Andrew I decided to purchase these armored vehicles, and then I equipped them with snowplows to push debris such as trees, telephone poles and even full houses out of the roads,” Larpenter said, adding that the trucks were purchased used. “We're able to clean our own roads up in a very expedient manner instead of waiting on the state or federal government to do it. “When we first bought the snowplows, people were laughing at us, but I assure you the people of the parish don't laugh about it anymore,” Larpenter said.Meanwhile, in the recreation town of Grand Isle, officials scrambled to find routes for emergency traffic. Mayor David Camardelle spent the morning in meetings trying to coordinate alternate emergency services for the town of about 1,300 people. Jefferson Parish was prepared with plans to use boats to service the town in case of a medical emergency. The state Department of Transportation and Development also worked closely with Grand Isle to monitor roadway conditions, Camardelle said.“I was very impressed with them. The DOTD stayed with us all night” Camardelle said. “I want to thank the governor. From one end of the state to the other, they stayed on top of it.”La. 1 also was closed at the Larose bridge, although alternate routes could be taken via La. 308 or La. 24 prior to the closure of the elevated portion, which begins at Leeville. “We are opening roads right now due to warmer weather, but that could change at any time as temperatures cool into the night,” Harrell said Wednesday afternoon. “Don't get that false sense of security. We're not out of the woods yet.”